The common belief is, the curator and the artist are both happier when the architect is less involved with the gallery space in the museum. What is the role of the architect in the contemporary art museum in this case? Designing a fancy hat for the white box? Or scripting the sequence such a way that museum starts to do something more than just being a beautiful sculpture.

ELEVATION EAST

We proposed to redefine the site of Guggenheim Helsinki by a 3 x 3m units, as an empty canvas.

The focal point that welcomes the visitors would be the round gallery.The round gallery is wrapped by a spiral walkway that connects two levels of the museum. The walkway surrounds four galleries making a loop connection.

OVERALL PLAN

The grid is where the art is attached, removed constantly during the year. Therefore is permanent, is the infrastructure. Indeterminate grid four major galleries. Entrances to these galleries are never from the ground level. The entry moments are suggested to be a variety of experiences. In the round gallery, user enters the space from the mid-level, in the cubes, one gallery is to be entered from the door aligned to the ceiling, the other is from the corner while the final, wider gallery is to be experienced by entering from the opening at the floor plate.

FIRST FLOOR PLAN

Only technical equipment, collections are to be carried into the gallery spaces from the ground level openings using trucks. The ground level already is occupied – dominated by the traffic from the Helsinki port and is unpleasant because of the presence of the highway next to it. The perimeter of the building is effected by the cold climate most of the year therefore is not considered as the main focus of the design. The building is enhancing the inwards experience of the space: the great courtyards of art.

The height of their skyscraper is very important for many investors. Architects often argue the quality of the spaces is more important than how tall it is. In the special case of Istanbul, the strong topographical characteristic adds more interesting parameters to the choice of the site for the skyscraper that is often ignored by the investors.

The easy competition is to compare your skyscraper’s height with the heights of European skyscrapers since there is not much of a super tall skyscraper in Europe.

If you are building the tallest skyscraper of Europe in +10m to sea level, your skyscraper is likely to disappear behind the hills of Istanbul when it is complete.

The priority for the investor for the building is likely to be the visibility of the building and what you can see from the highest point when you are in the building.

The smarter approach would be to value the highest points in the modern district of Istanbul, Sisli where most of the new skyscrapers are located.

This is a test for preparing an animation for the project we are currently working on. As you can see we are not experts on animation making as Building Office but with the collaboration with producer Meltem Oznalci and moving to Los Angeles, you will see remarkable improvements in our moving images soon.

The long-term book project of our office, Sisli book is coming to a shape yet it’s still a draft. The modern Istanbul guide based on a newly proposed one kilometer grid system is searching for a modern city planning on a strong topography like Istanbul.

We are also questioning blindly acceptance of the skyscraper as stacked floors of a tall building just like an American flat city in Istanbul when it dramatically keeps failing.

Twelve proposals of our office highlights the key moments in Sisli, in search for a system – sometimes unbuildable – to tackle the issues such the desire of having a great public square, Americanising the silhouette of the city while keeping the traditional character.

Şişli book is in Turkish however the same projects with their thesis will take place in the “Building” book to be published around 2016 in English.

This astonishing photo of the De Rotterdam (OMA) building is taken by Ruud Sies. I’ve witnessed some part of the very hard work under the leadership of Ellen van Loon behind for this building, and it’s a great feeling to see the building now actually built. Congratulations to the De Rotterdam team!

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Architect, OMA

AA Dipl. RIBA Part 2
born Massachusetts, USA 1985. Studied BSc Architecture at University of East London, gained RIBA Part 1. Worked at Office for Metropolitan Architecture, Rotterdam 2007-2008. Continued his education at Architectural Association School of Architecture in London between 2008 and 2012. Studied under the diploma masters Natasha Sandmeier of Diploma 9, Peter Karl Becher of Diploma 3 and Eugene Han, Diploma 8. Founded Building Office in 2006 with Aris Kozmidis, structural engineer at ARUP, Los Angeles. Moved to Los Angeles after gaining RIBA Part 2 for one year and joined back OMA in 2015 for the new Dubai office.